With every quiet gesture, Julian Lennon, is intent on making his mark on the world to make it cleaner, safer and filled with love.

While reminiscing about growing up in the British countryside, running in the fields, climbing trees and communing with nature, he wants to inspire others through his many artistic endeavors. They include children’s books, writing and recording songs, photography, making documentary films and environmental outreach.

Lennon, 56, the eldest son of music legend John Lennon, is a low-key artist, activist and humanitarian, who admits that he is proud to talk about Love the Earth, the final installment of his children’s book trilogy that was co-authored by Bart Davis.

This beautiful and captivating picture book allows readers, both children and adults alike, to jump aboard the White Feather Flier, a magical plane that can go anywhere on Earth!

The proceeds from Lennon’s books, as well as his documentaries, music and photography, are donated to The White Feather Foundation, a nonprofit global environmental and humanitarian organization, which he created in 2007.

He explained at a Manhattan breakfast event hosted by The Moms, (Denise Albert and Melissa Gerstein), that the key initiatives for the foundation are education, health, conservation and the protection of indigenous cultures.

Symbolically, a white feather, has personal meaning for Lennon, who is intent on keeping his father’s spirit alive. Julian is known to have been the direct inspiration for three songs by The Beatles: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Hey Jude and Good Night.

As Lennon explained, “Dad once said to me that should he pass away, if there was some way of letting me know he was going to be OK—that we were all going to be OK—the message would come to me in the form of a white feather.

“Then something happened to me while on tour in Australia with the album, Photograph Smile, I was presented with a white feather by an Aboriginal tribal elder, from the the Mirning people, which definitely took my breath away.”

That sign, as well as others in the 38 years since his father’s death in December 1980, have had a major impact on Lennon’s life. He was 17 when his father died.

As the new book reveals, “The magic White Feather is a symbol of love. Loving the Earth means wanting to protect and nurture all our land and water, all our creatures, all our people.” He invites his readers to turn on their “imagination power” and shake the White Feather to watch it change into the most fabulous airplane in the world.

“If you talk about the people we have lost, be inspired by them, and honor their memory, they’re still here and still a part of us,” Lennon exclusively told Parade.com. “We are physically part of our parents and the generations who came before us… and obviously it’s our memories that keep them alive.”

How do you feel about how much The White Feather Foundation has accomplished since you started it 12 years ago?

It’s extraordinary. Sometimes, I can’t believe it. We continue to move forward with different projects all the time, working with NGOs [non-governmental organizations] all around the world. I figured from the get-go that there was no point turning up a whole new team, but instead to work with the people who are already doing a great job with the issues that we care about and in the places that we care about. Let’s try and support them as best as we can.

Do you think having the celebrity profile that you do and having access to so many people from all of your endeavorscan help to improve the world?

Well, yes, of course. I think that anybody who is in the limelight should throw a little light toward a cause and an issue as long as they believe in what they’re doing. I certainly believe in The White Feather Foundation in every way, shape and form, so, of course, I’m going to back it and support it in every way and make as many connections as I can to help it going forward.

Will you share a fond memory of loving children’s books as a boy?

I remember as a kid with my mom [Cynthia] and my grandmother, at nap time or bed time, reading Dr. Seuss books, The Adventures of Rupert Bear, and other favorite titles. I recall being huddled with my mom or my grandmother, looking through these incredibly beautiful picture books, going on the journey of the story, and sharing it with them. So, I felt like “What if we added education to the mix, but without shoving it down anybody’s throat?”

When did you write Touch the Earth, the first book in the trilogy?

Three years ago. It’s been three books, one a year in succession. It took a year to write because I believe you have to be careful about how you word things and how you want to express things. Again, it’s about showing my passion for the love of this Earth, but also bringing about awareness about the problems that we all face.

So what do you appreciate about Love the Earth and your other two children’s books, Touch the Earth and Heal the Earth?

I love that it’s about starting a conversation about the world around us and considering the impact on children who are reading the book. It’s about the children asking key questions like: “Why are the oceans polluted? Why don’t people over there have water?” So, in that process of reading the book, they are learning about geography and different cultures around the world. It all starts with them engaging in that initial conversation while going through the book and taking an imaginative journey through the world that we live in.

Julian Lennon and Denise Albert (of The Moms) talk about Love The Earth, his new children's book (Photo Noreen McAneny)

Why do you feel that is it so important for children to worry about our planet?

I used to love playing outside as a child, climbing trees, jumping into rivers, creating rope swings and just being outside in the country. For that opportunity to be taken away is a terrible thing. You just can’t stick to your phones 24/7. It’s important while growing up to have a clean world around you; to breathe clean air, have clean streets and a clean community.

What is your overall mission with the books, your foundation and other creative endeavors?

It’s always been part of my mission to have great passion for certain things in the world, whether it’s clean water, health and education, and to protect indigenous tribes around the world because they should have real ownership of this planet, and they have so much wisdom to teach us. It’s very simple: “Look after the place where you live and don’t do something bad on your own doorstep.”

Will you add a soundtrack to these books?

There are three poems, one in each book. Mark Spiro, who I wrote my 1991 song Saltwater with, is an old friend, and we have already done the audio books with different music and backgrounds. So the concept of putting those poems with music is in the cards, it’s just a matter of finding the time.

You have accomplished a great deal in your life creatively. If you could point to one or two things that give you the most pride, what would you choose?

In addition to the books, I’d like to think that I’m pretty good at writing environmental songs like Saltwater. Also, I feel that all of this is about bringing about awareness without shoving it down people’s throats, that this is where we are and that we need to change things. I love documentaries very much and being a part of those, because there are a lot of people out there with little to no voice. There is a documentary coming out later this year or early next year that I’m the producer of, Women of the White Buffalo, about American Indian women and how they have been used and abused. Another documentary of mine is called Kiss the Ground, about how we’ve literally destroyed the soil in the center of America called the Dust Bowl. This area has been over-farmed to such a degree that the soil is actually dead. It can no longer grow or sustain anything.

Do you have plans on writing any more books?

I really don’t know. Four years ago, I didn’t know I was going to be sitting here having written a trilogy of children’s books. That was beyond my imagination, so as an artist and a human being, I tend to follow things organically. For me, whether it has to do with photography, travel, music or The White Feather Foundation, it has to be a natural rhythm and a natural approach in life. I’ve ended up in Ethiopia, Kenya and in Colombia, South America, with the indigenous tribes from down there. These trips have come from meeting people, talking and saying, “Do you want to come to the Amazon with us?” I look at my schedule and say “sure, let’s go.”

You are a big proponent of traveling.

Yes. I think that travel is one of the best educational tools in the world. It’s engaging in the world around you, engaging in different cultures, and realizing that underneath everything we are all the same; we are all one.

AMG/Parade Digital

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